I agree with this, especially regarding quality replacements for Doucoure & Capoue. I think the club will bring in a winger & a striker, but it worries me that they might think our current CM options are sufficient to keep us up. They're not.
If Tammy Abrahams is too expensive, what about Eddie Nketiah? He only has one year left on his contract.
Wouldn't be spitting my tea out over it, but at the same time he's much less proven at the top level than Abraham and yet would still have the English/big club premium hanging over him, even with that year left. He's also being linked to Brighton at the moment, although possibly as part of one of those silly paper-talk 'swap deals' involving Arsenal's desire to sign Yves Bissouma. I think if he left he could probably find quite a few higher level teams than us prepared to take a gamble on bringing him into the fold with relatively little risk to themselves, whereas if we did it we'd be committing a relatively large part of whatever our transfer budget is to cross all our fingers and toes that he doesn't become the next Rhian Brewster.
There is a real tendancy for fans to massively overhype these U23 players at the big clubs based on U23 / cup games - Brewster, Jerome Sinclair, Ben Woodburn etc. Sam Dalby scored for fun in the U23s but can't even get into Woking's starting line up. Nketiah looked quite a bit worse in the championship than Joao Pedro did - I accept that was a year or so ago but not sure he is even an improvement. He is also a similar sort of player to Brewster as well in that he offers very little outside of goals. Brighton have absolutely stupid money so it may be worth a game for them, but I think it would be awful business for us.
For sure, I do tend to agree - it would be a lot more worth it/easier to countenance, in fairness, if we weren't in the insane position we are currently, with no capable centre forwards and it being absolutely imperative that one we do bring in basically becomes 'the answer' to a question no other team is asking to begin with. If we were considering him to come in and complement/challenge/put pressure on even one established player in that position it could potentially be shrewd, but as it is, thanks to our striking circus, it would be an insane gamble.
We need a starting goalkeeper as Bachmann is too much of a risk and Foster is past it. Ashley Young at RB would be fine as you can't trust Kiko at this level, we need a natural LB to compete with Masina. CB's are fine as they are because we have more important areas to improve. I think we need a holding midfielder in the style of Jorginho to support the grafters we have in there currently. The majority of our budget must go on finding a top striker who will actually score goals, no more clowns like Deeney and Gray. We're also fine on the wings if Sarr stays and Cucho returns.
Given our defensive record last time the defence probably does need work on and WTE won’t get away with how awful his passing is in the PL. But I agree the most important issue is up front.
I believe you're going to be very disappointed. Absolutely no chance of a new starting keeper or Young if he signs starting at RB. A Jorginho style midfielder is not what's needed we already have enough powder puffs in there. A Doucs style midfielder is what's needed imo. Left back to push Masina yes, CB we need a partner for FS unless there is a remarkable turnaround in ability from WTE. Kabs has his moments and Cathcart is just backup now. Yes striker is detrimental along with a left sided forward imo.
We have a veteran and a Championship goalkeeper as options currently, the club will almost certainly be looking to improve this. I'm not sure you understand what Jorginho does if you think he's "powder puff". We need a player who can sit in and pick a pass. We have enough runners with Cleverley, Hughes, Gosling and Chalobah. I would be happy with a CB but as I said other areas are more important.
You are being pretty condecending there when I am pretty sure it is you who doesnt understand. Jorginho plays in teams that dominate possession (something we will absolutely not be doing that in the premier league) and also plays alongside probably the best destructive midfielder in the world at the moment who does a lot of the dirty work for him (again not a luxury we have). We either need a proper goal scoring midfielder (to make up for our lack of goals), or a proper defensive midfielder (given we don't have one). Bachmann showed himself to be one of the better championship goalkeepers. I have some concerns about him and if we stay in the premier league he will need replacing, but there are so many other areas that are more important than him. We have a finite pot of money - spunking it on another keeper when we have two fairly competent ones and one promising young one seems nonsensical. We desperately need a new centre forward and an improvement on Ken Sema - not sure any other position even comes close in importance to either.
Ken Sema deserves a chance next season - Joao Pedro and Cucho are also good options for that LW position as we will obviously be signing someone to start through the middle. Our midfield system has been built around having a deep-lying playmaker and Hughes has done that job well, but in the Prem Hughes is a runner in the 8 position at best. To keep our system working in the Prem we're going to need someone who has a lot of quality in possession in that defensive role. Look at Bournemouth and Sheffield United, if you have a sh*t goalkeeper you will get relegated.
Ken Sema was a decent championship winger - nothing more. Lovely bloke and decent squad option who can do a job in multiple roles, but across both his previous PL spell and last season I have seen nothing to suggest he is good enough to start for a PL team. He is incredible one footed, pretty slow and is fairly easy to defend. Far better as a wing back than a winger. Joao Pedro and Cucho have spent the majority of their careers playing at centre forward. They may well turn out to be decent options out wide as you say but there is little evidence at the moment. Ramsdale is not a **** keeper nor is he the reason Bournmouth / Sheffield United were relegated. The issue with Sheffield United is that their best striker is David McGoldrick. Bournemouth's strike force went to pot as well although Wilson clearly a very good player. Hughes is a playmaker. He is not a box to box midfielder and has not played that any any stage in his career. Has Hughes played as a box to box midfielder at any stage in his entire career? I would be surprised given that his two weakest attributes are his speed and and his goalscoring ability. Masina does look to have kicked on this season but I still have major concerns about him. Expect we will see a back up to him though rather than heavy investment in that position
Harsh on Sema that, he's a solid player and has a very good end product. He struggled here under Javi because we didn't play with out-and-out wingers. As for Cucho he's spent about a third of his playing time as a winger in Spain in recent seasons. He and JP aren't prolific enough to start up front but they're too good to leave out completely. You should look at the numbers behind Ramsdale's performances over the past 2 seasons. He's one of the lowest ranking keepers in the Prem, and there was a significant drop off that Sheff Utd felt without Henderson back there to save them. Bachmann gets us relegated if he's our starting keeper, the rest is irrelevant.
Box-to-box/number 8 whatever you want to call it, Hughes has spent most of his career playing in the parallel 2 ahead of a CDM.
Actually spent some time at the club, has seemed to have an interest in us, and probably wouldn't attract much in the way of a transfer fee these days so I reckon he'll stay. Where and how much he'd play for us I don't know
He is solid but I wouldn't really go any further than that. I'd love for him to prove me wrong, but on the basis of what I have seen I would be concerned if he was our starting winger. Hughes spent a year playing on the wing, but it doesn't mean it suited him. I am not convinced he suits playing on the wing at all. I am not saying Ramsdale is good - I am just saying he is not "****" and to blame him for Bournemouth and Sheffield United's relegation is monumentally unfair. Again I am not saying Bachmann is amazing - but it is ludicrous to suggest he is so bad he would relegate us. He looked better than Ben Foster who has been decent enough at that level for a decade or so. We have seen plenty of sides go down with good keepers, but far more rarely rarely do they go down with good forwards.
Cleverley Hughes Chalobah Gosling Quina Dele-Basiru Louza Zinkernagel* Lots of midfielders, with the possibility of another to come (Danilo/Ferguson). We probably only need 6. Is it time to cash in on Quina? Is he worth enough to make a sale worthwhile? Would definitely look to loan out TDB. I think a midfield selection of Hughes, Nate, Clevs, Gosling, Louza plus another new signing is pretty decent. *I wouldn't want Zink in central midfield in the Prem
I think Dele-Bashiru has to go on loan. Promising player but basically not played adults football. I struggle to see what part Gosling plays next season. It wouldn't shock me if he ended up back at Bournemouth in January / next summer. Not sure about Quina - there is clear a player there but so many different managers haven't rated him. Just seems incapable of taking opportunities when they come his way.
Potential sales from our squad have got to be; Navarro, Success, Gray, Quina, Penaranda, Perica, and Cucho (want him to stay). Those 7 are the only 7 I can see us trying to sell outright. Think we will get somewhere between £15-23mil for that lot. Cucho being our biggest sellable asset that we wouldn’t miss. Navarro £500k-£1mil Success £2-3mil Gray £2-3mil Quina £2-3mil Penaranda £500k-£1mil Perica £1-2mil Cucho £7-10mil Loans I think we will see; Wilmot (disagree with it), Phillips, TDB, Dahlberg, Pollock, Baah (wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in the first team squad). Wouldn’t be surprised to see sent to Udinese; Sema. Yes he got a new contract, but should we sign Hauge, and keep Cucho, then I think Sema goes back to Italy. If we can’t sell Quina to another club, he goes there too. Right now if we were to take the very strong rumours of who we are in for, we are looking at something like this Bachmann/Foster Kiko/Ngakia Sierralta/Ekong/Kaba/Cathcart Masina/Doig Hughes/Chalobah/Louza/Cleverley/Ferguson/Gosling Sarr/Zinckernagel Borre/Pedro/Nketiah/Deeney Hauge/Cucho/Sema/Baah (maybe) Plus Young as a versatility player. I don’t think we sign Nketiah at all, especially for £15mil, but rumours were rife again today, so figured I would include him. I do think we’re the club Borre has chosen, I also think we sign Hauge, Doig and Ferguson. When you look at that squad, we either keep Wilmot and don’t send him on loan, or if we do send him on loan, then another CB is needed. CM would need one more strong addition in my opinion. All in all not that much spent if rumours are true. Louza £8.6mil plus bonuses Doig £4mil Ferguson £3mil Borre free Hauge I would guess will be loan with option to buy around £10-15mil. For those 5 players looking at roughly £15.6mil this season. Which of course will not all be upfront, fees will be spread out over the course of the contracts or simply yearly installments over the next 2/3 seasons. Of course if we do sign Nketiah (we won’t), then I would expect his fee to be around £7-10mil. No-one will pay Arsenal £15mil for someone who is free in 6 months. If we send Wilmot on loan, I would expect us to either sign another promising CB, or a proven old timer as 5th choice. Even if Wilmot stays, our CB’s don’t fill me with hope. CM, I’m thinking again we sign a potential superstar one day, who all the top clubs are watching but haven’t made their minds up yet, but we swoop in early and take the risk.
I would say we need 8. Midfield is where we need the most cover as they get through the most work and one or two of them are a little injury prone. Dele needs to go on loan to a Championship side and get a full season. Not sure what to do with Quina
I can only see Sema being sold or loaned back to Italy if Xisco says he does not want him in the squad. No sign of that, i think as much as his perceived ability, loyalty will see him as part of the Watford squad for 21/22
A couple of weeks ago Quina put up a picture on his Instagram with a little notepad it. Possibly working on a contract with Granada? I don't see a future for him here - he had to do the business last year and he looked ordinary. He plays a position that doesn't really exist in this country.
I'm backing Deeney and Gray to come good next season, so I hope we don't squander any of our meagre transfer budget on forwards. I'm really hoping we go down the route of stockpiling as many left backs as possible. As we all know, genuine left sided full backs are a rare commodity, and if we buy up as many as possible we can corner the market and demand absurd transfer fees down the line as no one else will have a left back. Give it a season and other clubs will be desperate and will pay whatever we demand. This must be the policy this window.
